AE700 fan noise

[monopole]

Hi,

I was expecting my AE700 fan noise in low lamp mode to be very quiet indeed - from projectorcentral.com:

"On the other hand, for those who have a small viewing space who might be opting for a smaller screen size, the low lamp mode reduces fan noise to almost zero and (presumably) extends lamp life somewhat. So that might be the preferred operating mode for some users."

I can most certainly hear mine - it's noiser than my friends old Sanyo Z2 (both in low lamp mode) and can be quite obtrusive, especially with quiet scenes. I really thought the AE700 would be as quiet, if not quieter than a Z2, but in fact it's much louder.

And the room temperature doesn't even hit 20 degrees before the fan starts to speed up and get even louder. The projector is mounted half way up a wall, so it's not as if it's catching any rising heat - there's no heating on at all and the nearest radiator is on the other side of the room anyway.

Can other AE700 users comment about noise levels?

[texass44]

I sit about 1.5 metres away from my ae700 in low lamp mode......If I concentrate, I can hear it (barely) but once I start watching & listening to the TV/Movie soundtrack I never really notice it.

[Weymouth Stan]

I must admit, I was a bit surprised at the level of fan noise on my 700 after reading all the 'you can barely tell it's on' comments. It's waaay better than the AE100 it replaced, but still a little more intrusive than I'd hoped (in 'low' mode and at the lowest fan speed). It's on a ceiling mount, about two feet from my head. I've heard that ceiling mounting makes it louder, but this could be due to shelving redirecting the sound upward, perhaps?

Stan

[mason]

As soon as you raise it more that 1.4m off of the groud you can certinly hear it.

Mine site 0.5, above sitting head height (wall mounted) and if yousit under it (centre ofthe screen) it can be noisy and mines is on low lamp mode.

I have turnd the heating off in the sitting room and it has helped a bit.

[Adrenochrome]

As mason says as soon as it is above 1.4m the fan noise gets louder (unbearably so imo) whereas the Sanyo Z3 is whisper quiet in comparison

[monopole]

Ahh, well, so it goes I guess.

I will have to look at moving the PJ perhaps... Or turn up the volume on the audio...

[pmc]

I have had problems with fan noise on my 700 since I first got it (posted a couple of threads here). It starts off really quiet but after a while gets louder and louder. At times it's pretty much unusable its so distracting. I took it back to the shop but they were unable to reproduce the problem.
After much experimenting I think I found the problem. If the temprature of the room is 23-24 degrees or warmer it overheats. Less than 22 it's always fine. Problem is that about 23-24 degrees is comfortable for me. Sounds like the original posters unit is even worse.
It's shelf mounted about 2 metres of the floor and a metre above my head.

It seems like the AE700 has a problem with ambient temprature. I find it hard to believe that 1 or 2 degrees difference in room temp makes such a big difference but there you have it. I could understand it struggling at 30 degrees or so but not the low 20's.
Turning off the heating doesn't seem like a reasonable solution and what are we going to do in the summer? I suspect Panasonic are going to have a flood of returned units once the summer weather hits.

I havn't tried putting it a different hights, will give it a go as an experiment but it wouldn't work for me in my room anyway.

Anyway I am taking it back to the shop again armed with my new knowledge of what causes the problem. It does only seem to affect certain units as most people seem happy with it. Then again we'll see what happens in the summer.

The AE700 is a fantanstic PJ when it works. Panny need to sort out there quality control though as there seems to be several problems (VB, flicker, noise) that can affect particular units.

[Keith Hurst]

It seems that if you have the 700 ceiling mounted and obviously in ceiling mode it knows its position is high and therefore increases the fan speed ( the desiginers obviously know that warm air rises!! ). This in itself is not a major problem, when the unit starts off in my installation it's pretty damn quiet.

Give it about 30 - 40 minutes however after the heating has kicked in and the temperature of the room increases then the fan starts going nuts. There certainly is a major increase in fan noise at this point.

Some solutions seem to be, keep your heating down and your jumper on, mount it high but on a shelf as opposed to inverted. This will 'fool' the 700 to thinking its still placed on a low level table, desk mode.

My usual solution is to turn the audio up a little, even though I have neighbours below me and through the wall its not too much of a problem as the audio is of the level where I can't hear them ringing the doorbell when they come round to complain lol.

In all seriousness though I have often asked my neighbours if the noise levels are too night from my system and they all have said no. Handy that really.

Regards
Keith Hurst

[Adrenochrome]

Originally Posted by KeithHurst

My usual solution is to turn the audio up a little, even though I have neighbours below me and through the wall its not too much of a problem as the audio is of the level where I can't hear them ringing the doorbell when they come round to complain lol.

Made me chuckle

[Tempest]

Hmmmmm.

On the other hand, you can shelf mount the AE700, this will put it up out of the way.

But don't turn it to shelf mode this will made the unit think you have it ona desk so it will run the fan quieter.

Then all you have to do it hand upside down to enjoy the new quiet cinematic experience.

Problem solved

[chriswhiteuk]

Originally Posted by KeithHurst

'fool' the 700

do you think this is software driven ? or is there a mercury switch I can solder

Mine is quite noisy as well (ceiling mounted in the apex of loft conversion), much more so than my AE500, but turn up the soundtrack, and off you go !

Chris

[monopole]

is high altitude mode determined automatically, or is there an option somewhere? clutching at straws I guess...

[scumball]

I'm sure in the secret menu there is an option under fan for 'high' - this may be to do with how high the projector is mounted rather than how high it spins...

[Keith Hurst]

Originally Posted by chriswhiteuk

do you think this is software driven ? or is there a mercury switch I can solder

Mine is quite noisy as well (ceiling mounted in the apex of loft conversion), much more so than my AE500, but turn up the soundtrack, and off you go !

Chris

Got to be software driven I reckon, if you put the 700 into ceiling mode. When you have this configuration and the fan speeds up try setting it back to desk mode, you will hear the fan speed down a little.

KH